Compass Points And Regions

[DavidHouston]

Friends,

Are the terms " อุดร อีสาน บุรพา อาคเนย์ ทักษิณ หรดี ประจิม พายัพ" identical to the compass directions "เหนือ ใต้ ตะวันออก ตะวันตก" etc.? Do these terms refer to regions or compass directions?

Thanks.

[tgeezer]

That is good to know. I have looked up a few and see that some บูรพา also have other meanings ตะวันออก; เบื้องหน้า. which in turn means ข้างหน้า อนาคต ต่อไป I am told by a reliable source that they are peculiar to the country as regional names. If you were speaking Thai in England using บูรพา in place of ตะวันออก would not work, similarly, using the other meanings would probably get the คนไทยไม่พูด response.

[Rikker]

They're the Indic-derived names of the compass points, and in that sense identical in meaning to their Thai counterparts (but not in usage), though those aren't their only meanings. I find these words fascinating.

อุดร = north (cognate with อุตร [อุด-ตะ-ระ], as in the province อุตรดิตถ์ "northern pier")

อีสาน = northeast (obviously the region of Thailand is the most common use of this term in Thai)

บุรพา = east (also means "pre-, before, front" as tgeezer points out; cognate with บุพ- as in บุพบท "preposition")

อาคเนย์ = southeast (interesting fact: the late Michael Wright coined the term อุษาคเนย์ "southeast asia" from the roots อาคเนย์ "southeast" and อุษา "dawn, east"; อุษา is even supposedly cognate with the word "Asia" via Proto-Indo-European)

ทักษิณ = south (hence the southern train line called the "Thaksin Express"; the word also means "right" and is partially cognate with "dexter, dextrous, dexterity")

หรดี = southwest

ประจิม = west (also spelled ปราจีน, as in ปราจีนบุรี "western city")

พายัพ = northwest (the region of northern Thailand is sometimes referred to as พายัพ, because it is northwest in comparison to อีสาน)

[DavidHouston]

Thank you, guys. That was great. There is another cognate for West: ปัจฉิม. My favorite usage? "ปัจฉิมวัย" meaning "old age". I guess this is the Thai version of the "sunset years".

There is also: ปัจฉิมลิขิต [N] postscript; epilogue

ปัจฉิมวาจา [N] last word

ปัจฉิมภาค [N] after-part; latter end; latter period

ปัจฉิมนิเทศ [N] post training

How spiffty!

[Rikker]

Also ปัจฉิมลิขิต = ป.ล., the Thai version of P.S. [Edit: You already mentioned that one. Missed it at first. Sorry!]

Another one just occurred to me: บูรพา is also cognate with บรรพ- [บัน-พะ], as in บรรพชน "ancestors", บรรพบุรุษ "forefathers", etc.

[Groongthep]

They're the Indic-derived names of the compass points, and in that sense identical in meaning to their Thai counterparts (but not in usage), though those aren't their only meanings. I find these words fascinating.

อุดร = north (cognate with อุตร [อุด-ตะ-ระ], as in the province อุตรดิตถ์ "northern pier")

อีสาน = northeast (obviously the region of Thailand is the most common use of this term in Thai)

บุรพา = east (also means "pre-, before, front" as tgeezer points out; cognate with บุพ- as in บุพบท "preposition")

อาคเนย์ = southeast (interesting fact: the late Michael Wright coined the term อุษาคเนย์ "southeast asia" from the roots อาคเนย์ "southeast" and อุษา "dawn, east"; อุษา is even supposedly cognate with the word "Asia" via Proto-Indo-European)ทักษิณ = south (hence the southern train line called the "Thaksin Express"; the word also means "right" and is partially cognate with "dexter, dextrous, dexterity")

หรดี = southwest

ประจิม = west (also spelled ปราจีน, as in ปราจีนบุรี "western city")

พายัพ = northwest (the region of northern Thailand is sometimes referred to as พายัพ, because it is northwest in comparison to อีสาน)

Yes, thanks Rikker for a very informative post. As a side note, I have heard my instructors at AUA use เอเซียอาคเนย์ in everyday speech for "southeast asia" using อาคเนย์ in conjuction with the english loan word เอเซีย for "asia".

[Rikker]

Yeah, อุษาคเนย์ is still less common than เอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ or เอเชียอาคเนย์.

BTW, the spelling เอเซีย (with ซ โซ่) has been supplanted by เอเชีย (with ช ช้าง) as the current standard form. Older resources use เอเซีย, and it's still relatively common, but less so these days. Pronunciation varies, though.